1&T  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^J 


Purchased   by  the    Hamill    Missionary  Fund. 


BV  2060  .L38  1902 
Laughlin,  J.  W.  1858- 
How  missions  pay 


How  Missions  Pay 


A  Study 

In  the  Triumphs  of 

Christianity 


By 

J.    W.    IyAUGHLIN,    D.D. 

Late  Superintendent  of  Missions  of  the 

Cumberland  Presbyterian 

Church' 


Nashville,  Tennessee 

THE    CUMBERLAND    PRESS 

1902 


CONTENTS 

Testimony 5 

Introduction 7 

I.  Individual  Character 9 

II.  Nations  in  a  Day 15 

III.  The  Schoolmaster  Abroad 18 

IV.  Scientists  and  Pioneers 23 

V.  Dollars  and  Cents 30 

VI.  The  Future  That  Shall  Be      ....  35 


TESTIMONY. 


I  cannot  forbear  to  pay  my  passing  tribute, 
nay  my  homage,  to  missionaries.  I  have  no 
words  to  express  my  admiration  of  these  men. 
I  count  it  one  of  the  privileges  of  my  life  to  have 
seen  their  work.  Henry  Drummond. 

To  discountenance  a  religion  which  has  done 
so  much  to  promote  justice,  mercy,  freedom,  the 
arts  of  science,  good  government  and  domestic 
happiness;  which  has  struck  off  the  chains  of 
the  slave,  mitigated  the  horrors  of  war,  raised 
women  from  servants  and  playthings  into  com- 
panions and  friends,  is  to  commit  high  treason 
against    humanity    and    civilization. 

Lord  Macaulay. 

Missionaries  deserve  a  vote  of  thanks  from  the 
commercial  world.  Robert  Moffat. 

As  for  the  spread  of  education  and  the  con- 
sequent raising  of  the  standard  of  civilization  the 
value  of  missionary  effort  has  been  simply  im- 
measurable. DR-  Clark. 

It  is  of  doubtful  expediency,  yea  a  demon- 
strated disadvantage,  to  press  civilization  upon 
barbarous  and  savage  communities,  since  their 
incapacity  to  assume  it  makes  it  a  demoralizing 
force  and  an  overwhelming  burden. 

Prof.  Flinders  Petrie. 
5 


6  HOW  MISSIONS  PA V 

In  my  judgment  the  Christian  missionaries 
have  done  more  real  and  lasting  good  to  the 
people  of  India  than  all  other  agencies  combined. 
They  have  been  the  salt  of  the  country  and  the 
true  saviors  of  the  empire. 

Sir  Augustus  Rivers  Thompson, 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Bengal. 

Speaking  simply  as  to  matter  of  experience 
^nd  observation,  I  assure  you  that  whatever  you 
may  be  told  to  the  contrary,  the  teachings  of 
Christianity  among  the  hundred  and  sixty  mil- 
lions of  civilized,  industrious  Hindus  and  Mo- 
hammedans in  India  are  effecting:  changes  moral, 
social  and  political  which  for  extent  and  rapidity 
of  effect  are  far  more  extraordinary  than  any- 
thin?  you  or  your  fathers  have  witnessed  in  mod- 
ern Europe.  Sir  Bartle  Frere, 
Governor  of  Bombay. 

Missionaries  are  the  pioneers  of  trade  and  com- 
merce. Civilization,  learning,  instruction  breed 
new  wants  which  commerce  supplies.  The  mis- 
sionary inspired  by  holy  zeal  p^oes  everywhere 
and  by  degrees  foreign  commerce  and  trade  fol- 
low. M*R-  Denby, 
United  States  Minister  to  China. 


INTRODUCTION. 


^^  "|NE  hot   and   dusty   summer  day, 

^3      as  tne  train  on  the  Mexican  Cen" 
|iyiy|    tral    wound    its    way    among    the 
1111111  mountain    spurs    and    over    the 
sandy   plains   of  northern   Mexico,   I   fell 
into  a  conversation  with  a  fellow  traveler, 
who   quickly   asked  my   business,   and   as 
quickly  replied,  when  I  told  him,  that  he 
did  not  think  it  was  very  profitable.    I  was 
a  missionary  and  he  was  a  merchant.    He 
had  seen  but  one  side  of  missionary  life, 
and  without  investigation  had  concluded 
that  missions  do  not  pay.     1  gave  him  a 
few  facts  which  I  had  gleaned  from  vari- 
ous sources  and  was  glad  to  hear  him  say 
that  he  had  not  before  seen  it  in  that  light. 
He  was  a  twentieth  century  man.     He 
was  wide  awake,  keen,  and  accustomed  to 
Does  it       ask  the  value  of  everything  he 
Pfly?        touched.     He  asked  me  what 
return  had  been  made  to  the  world  for  all 
the   money   and   men   used   in   preaching 
the   gospel,   in   building  churches   and  in 
7 


8  HOW  MISSIONS  PA Y 

establishing  schools  and  hospitals  in  for- 
eign fields.  It  was  not  a  new  question. 
From  Job's  time  down  men  have  asked : 

"What  is  the  Almighty,  that  we  should  serve 
him?  And  what  profit  should  we  have,  if  we 
pray  unto  him?" 

Our  age  is  peculiarly  sensitive,  however, 
to  the  question  of  profit  and  loss,  and  11 
it  can  be  shown  that  as  a  result  of  mis- 
sion work  the  sum  total  of  the  world's 
knowledge  has  been  increased,  natural 
science  illumined,  philology  and  geog- 
raphy advanced,  commerce  and  civiliza- 
tion stimulated,  we  have  gone  a  long  way 
toward  answering  the  question  which  the 
spirit  of  the  times  is  continually  suggest- 
ing:  Do  missions  really  pay? 


I. 

INDIVIDUAL  CHARACTER. 


"Till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a 
perfect  man." 


HE  noblest  thing  in  the  world  is 
Christian  character.  It  is  not  a 
product  of  race,  but  of  grace.  It 
is  not  a  result  of  good  blood,  but 
of  divine  blood.  Mission  work  is  product- 
ive of  magnificent  character  wherever 
tried.  Ever  since  the  wild  man  of  Gadara 
was  clothed  'and  put  in  his  right  mind  by 
coming  in  contact  with  Jesus,  men  every- 
where have  been  transformed  by  the  same 
power  until  the  world  has  been  con- 
strained to  say,  "Behold  what  God  hath 
wrought."  This  is  a  realm  where  mathe- 
matics play  no  part.  No  earthly  stand- 
ards can  measure  results  in  this  sphere. 
The  forces  that  exalt  man's  nature  are 
divine. 

9 


10  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

A  half  century  ago  a  boy  was  born  in 
the  Japanese  empire.  By  some  fortunate 
providence  a  copy  of  a  Chinese  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible  fell  into  his  hands.  Soon 
a  glimpse  at  a  map  of  the  United  States 
gave  him  a  desire  to  see  the  new  world, 
but  Japanese  law  forbade  emigration  and 

Japanese  he  was  compelled  to  run  away. 
Push.  j^e  stole  on  board  a  ship  at 
Shanghai  and  worked  his  way  to  Boston, 
where  he  came  under  the  influence  of  Mr. 
Joseph  Hardy,  a  Christian  philanthropist, 
who  offered  to  educate  him.  He  entered 
college  and  became  a  Christian.  He  took 
Mr.  Hardy's  name.  He  finished  his  col- 
lege course  with  honor  and  went  back  to 
Japan  to  become  the  first  native  evan- 
gelist of  his  race.  He  collected  money 
with  which  to  erect  the  Doshisha,  the  first 
great  Christian  school  of  the  empire.  He 
used  to  say  that  he  could  have  been  nailed 
to  a  literal  cross  with  less  suffering  than 
he  was  compelled  to  endure  while  at  work 
upon  that  school.  But  by  no  tempting 
offer  of  personal  gain  could  he  be  induced 
to  turn  aside  from  his  course  as  a  mis- 
sionary, and  when  he  died  there  were 
hundreds   of  young  men   and  women   all 


INDIVIDUAL  CHARACTER  11 

over  the  empire  who  testified  to  the  in- 
fluence which  the  life  of  Joseph  Hardy 
Neesima  had  upon  them  for  good. 

In   China   a  native   preacher    has    this 

story  to  tell  of  his  life  for  Christ :     Soon 

after  his  conversion  he  got  a  box  for  a 

pulpit    and    began    to    preach.     A    mob 

Chinese      gathered,  knocked  him  off  the 

Courage.       ^QXf     ^eat     \^m     with     bamboo 

rods  and  threw  him  over  the  walls  of  the 
city  for  dead.  He  revived,  went  to  a 
brook  and  washed  off  the  dirt  and  blood, 
then  went  back  and  began  again  to  preach. 
The  mob  again  gathered,  again  beat  him 
with  rods,  dragged  him  through  the 
streets  and  threw  him  again  over  the 
walls  for  dead.  He  came  to  again  and 
knelt  down  and  prayed,  "Lord,  what  wilt 
thou  have  me  to  do?"  Then  he  went 
back  and  began  again  to  preach.  The 
mob  gathered  the  third  time.  The  police, 
fearing  that  they  would  have  to  answer 
for  the  preacher's  life,  arrested  him  and 
put  him  into  a  prison  that  opened  upon  a 
square.  Here  the  mob  gathered  and 
yelled  and  threw  stones  and  tore  their 
hair  and  cried  for  his  life.  The  preacher 
went  to  the  window,  put  his  hand  out  and 


12  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

beckoned  to  them  to  be  quiet ;  then,  lean- 
ing his  bruised  and  bleeding  face  against 
the  prison  bars,  said :  "None  of  these 
things  move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life 
dear  to  myself,  so  that  I  might  finish  my 
course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry,  which  I 
have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify 
the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God."  Did  any 
of  the  old  martyrs  do  any  better  than  that  ? 
Did  ever  Anglo-Saxon  blood  show  ma- 
terial for  sturdier  character  than  that? 

In  a  little  rude  hut  on  the  banks  of  the 
Bangweolo,  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  David 
Livingstone  gave  his  heroic  life  back  to 
African  God.    At  the  time  of  his  death 

Devotion.  foe  was  attended  by  six  black 
sons  of  the  soil,  whom  his  devotion  had 
won  for  Christ.  They  found  him  in  the 
morning  dead.  "They  were  six  thousand 
miles  from  his  native  land,  and  fifteen  hun- 
dred from  the  coast.  The  circumstances 
which  surrounded  them  were  enough  to 
embarrass  the  most  expert.  The  body 
must  be  preserved,  but  there  were  no 
means  of  embalming  it.  It  must  be  trans- 
ported to  the  coast,  but  there  were  no 
carts  or  wagons',  no  roads  or  beasts  of 
burden.     What   should  be  done?     It   re- 


INDIVIDUAL  CHARACTER  13 

quired  but  a  moment  to  decide.  In  a 
crude,  primitive  fashion  they  prepared  the 
body  for  transportation  by  removing  the 
heart  and  viscera  and  burying  them  under 
a  tree ;  then  it  was  exposed  to  the  sun  for 
a  number  of  days,  and,  when  reduced  to 
the  condition  of  a  mummy,  sewed  into 
a  covering  of  canvas  and  so  made  ready 
to  be  borne  between  two  men  on  their 
shoulders.  Then  these  black  men  of  the 
forest,  who  had  known  Livingstone's  God, 
looked  to  him  for  direction  and  started 
upon  the  most  remarkable  funeral  march 
on  record.  Watch  them  as  for  forty 
weeks  they  run  all  manner  of  risks,  now 
going  by  some  circuitous  route  to  secure 
a  safe  passage,  now  compelled  to  resort 
to  stratagem  to  get  their  precious  burden 
through  the  country,  now  forced  to  fight 
their  foes  in  order  to  complete  their  holy 
mission.  Follow  them  as  they  ford  rivers, 
traverse  trackless  deserts  and  dare  perils 
from  wild  beasts  and  wilder  men.  On 
and  on,  never  fainting,  never  halting,  they 
go,  until  they  lay  at  the  feet  of  the  British 
consul  at  Zanzibar,  in  love  and  gratitude, 
all  there  was  left  of  Scotland's  noblest 
hero,  except  that  buried  heart."   Has  the 


14  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

world  ever  seen  an  exhibition  of  courage, 
tenderness,  gratitude  or  devotion  which 
surpassed  that?  When  such  results  as 
these  are  found  on  mission  fields,  may  we 
not  ask  whether  we  are  not  justified  in 
doing  missionary  work  at  any  cost? 


II. 

NATIONS  IN  A  DAY. 


'Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation: 
But  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people.' 


RANSFORMATIONS  no  less 
radical  than  those  mentioned  on 
preceding  pages  have  been  seen 
in  entire  communities.     There  is 


a  large  and  beautiful  group  of  islands  in 
the  southern  Pacific  Ocean',  called  the  Fiji 
Islands.  These  number  about  two  hun- 
dred. Only  eight  of  them  are  inhabited, 
and  the  largest  two  are  only  about  ninety- 
miles  in  length.  The  inhabitants  are  a 
fine  race,  of  fair  intelligence,  and,  accord- 
ing to  the  measure  of  their  simple  wants, 
reasonably  industrious.  Having  been  left 
to  the  undisturbed  control  of  bad  influ- 
ences, they  became  extremely  vile  and 
degraded.  Cannibalism  was  a  recognized 
institution  among  them  and  was  practiced 
to  a  frightful  extent.  Infanticide  was  a 
15 


16  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

general  custom  and  the  burial  alive  of  the 
sick  was  common.  Polygamy  with  all  its 
inseparable  evils  was  established  through- 
out the  group. 

About  fifty  years  ago  James  Calvert 
and  John  Hunt,  two  men  from  the  Wes- 
leyan   church,   began   work   among   these 

christian  islands.  The  language  of  the 
F'J'*  people     having     never     been 

written,  the  missionaries  had  to  supply  an 
alphabet  and  reduce  the  language  to  writ- 
ing, so  as  to  give  the  people  a  knowledge 
of  the  word  of  God  in  their  own  tongue. 
In  the  face  of  this  stupendous  difficulty 
the  work  was  begun.  In  faith  and  hope 
the  seed  was  sown,  and  the  result  is  a 
permanent  transformation  of  the  people. 
They  have  schools  with  forty  thousand 
children  in  attendance.  They  have  thirty 
thousand  Christians,  with  an  average  at- 
tendance of  one  hundred  thousand  people 
at  public  worship.  Fifty  years  ago  there 
was  not  a  Christian  in  Fiji,  now  not  an 
avowed  heathen  can  be  found.  Canni- 
balism is  no  more,  and  other  customs  of 
barbarism  and  cruelty  have  disappeared. 
Similar  transformations  have  been 
wrought  in  Sierra  Leone  and  Equatorial 


NA TIONS  IN  A  DAY  17 

Africa,  in  New  Zealand  and  Uganda,  in 
Japan  and  Siam,  in  the  New  Hebrides, 
Tahiti,  Hawaii  and  Madagascar.  China 
and  India  have  not  been  converted,  but 
movement  in  that  direction  is  so  striking 
in  its  character  as  to  insure  the  final  re- 
sult. 


III. 

THE  SCHOOLMASTER,  ABROAD. 


"My  people  are  destroyed  for  lack  of  knowl- 
edge." 

|T  is  a  delight  to  consider  the  edu- 
cative force  of  mission  work.  It 
has  never  been  the  policy  of 
heathen  governments  to  educate 
the  masses ;  hence,  in  lands  where  mis- 
sionaries labor,  schools  are  seldom  found. 
Sometimes  the  spirit  of  trade  leads  men 
to  start  and  maintain  for  a  time  institu- 
tions for  qualifying  themselves  and  their 
sons  for  business.  But  such  schools  are 
short-lived,  and  as  soon  as  the  present 
need  disappears  they  collapse.  The  truest 
a  college  and  therefore  the  most  abid- 
in  Syria.  jng  interest  in  education  is 
that  which,  appreciating  the  value  of  the 
gospel  and  desiring  to  perpetuate  its  ben- 
efits, builds  a  college  to  raise  up  men  who 
can  grasp  the  truths  of  the  Bible  and  set 
18 


SCHOOLMASTER  ABROAD  19 

them  forth  before  the  world  with  power. 
With  this  thought  in  mind  the  mission- 
aries of  Syria  decided  to  erect  the  Syrian 
Protestant  College  of  Beirut.  It  has  a 
literary  department,  with  dormitories, 
cabinets,  lecture  rooms,  library  and 
chapel.  It  has  a  medical  hall,  containing 
medical  libraries,  lecture  rooms,  dissect- 
ing rooms,  chemical  and  pharmaceutical 
laboratories.  It  is  conducted  strictly  on 
evangelical  principles  and  is  open  to  all 
who  comply  with  its  regulations.  Every 
student  is  made  acquainted  with  the  dis- 
tinctive principles  of  the  gospel  and  the 
Bible  is  one  of  the  text-books  through  the 
week  in  all  the  classes. 

The  preparatory  department  was  started 
in  1865,  the  college  proper  in  1866.  The 
first  class  graduated  in  1871.  At  the  time 
the  college  was  established  no  woman 
could  be  heard  of  who  could  read.  None 
was  considered  capable  of  learning.  "Of 
what  use  could  it  be?"  they  said.  "Could 
she  light  her  husband's  pipe  any  better  or 
bring  his  slippers  any  quicker?  Educate 
a  woman?  You  might  as  well  educate  u 
cow." 


20  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

Now,  contrast  the  city  fifty  years  ago 
with  the  city  to-day.  Then  it  had  a  popu- 
lation of  8,000,  to-day  the  population  is 
80,000.  Then  there  was  not  a  school,  hardly 
a  book,  not  a  printing  press,  carriage  road, 
glass  window,  nor  a  set  of  European  furn- 
iture, to  be  seen  anywhere.  To-day  it  has 
the  Syrian  Protestant  College  on  the  west, 
a  second  Protestant  church  on  the  east, 
macadamized  roads,  stage  coaches,  water 
supply  from  a  neighboring  river,  new 
Oriental  houses  with  modern  conven- 
iences, furniture  and  books  in  almost  every 
home.  It  has  four  colleges,  five  female 
seminaries  and  ninety-three  schools. 

A  similar  work  has  been  accomplished 
by  Robert  College  in  Constantinople.  It 
was  erected  under  the  direction  of  Cyrus 
Hamlin,  at  a  cost  of  $300,000.  It  is  lo- 
cated in  one  of  the  most  important  cen- 
ters of  influence  in  the  Old  World.  Its 
teaching  is  based  on  the  Bible  and  on  the 
perfect  freedom  of  the  conscience.     It  has 

Beside  the       its  graduates  in  the  army,  on 

Bosporus.  tne  civil  list,  in  schools,  in 
business,  in  the  professions,  in  banks  and 
on  newspapers,  showing  they  occupy  posi- 
tions of  influence  throughout  the  country. 


SCHOOLMASTER  ABROAD  21 

Besides  these,  what  shall  we  say  of  the 

Doshisha,  established    in    Japan  through 

the  influence  of  mission  money,  which  has 

in  Many  had  such  happy  effect  upon 

Lands  Afar.  tJle    men    who    are    high    [n 

the  service  of  that  young  giant  among 
the  nations  of  the  east ;  or  of  the  Girls' 
Seminary  in  Ceylon,  where  Eliza  Agnew 
spent  forty-three  years  training  Cey- 
lonese  girls  and  became  known  as  "the 
mother  of  a  thousand  daughters,"  not  one 
of  whom  went  through  the'  entire  course 
of  study  without  becoming  a  Christian ;  or 
of  the  work  begun  by  Alexander  Duff  in 
India,  where  it  was  said  that  a  cow  had 
higher  rank  and  more  rights  than  a 
woman,  but  where  to-day  one  hundred 
thousand  women  and  girls  are  under  in- 
struction ;  or  of  the  splendid  work  done 
in  Persia  by  Fidelia  Fiske,  who  for  six- 
teen years  labored  among  the  degraded 
women  in  the  "land  of  Esther,"  seeking 
to  reproduce  the  system  of  instruction 
which  at  Holyoke,  Mass.,  made  Mary 
Lyon's  school  for  girls  so  famous ;  or  of 
the  hundreds  of  other  schools  in  Japan, 
in  China,  in  India,  in  Africa ;  of  industrial 
institutions,   of  training  schools,   of  hos- 


22  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

pitals  and  dispensaries  where  boys  and 
girls,  men  and  women  are  taught  to  read 
and  write,  to  work,  to  care  for  their  bodies 
and  to  appreciate  the  environments  of  a 
civilized  life?  Of  the  ten  thousand  mis- 
sionaries on  the  foreign  field  to-day  every 
one  is  an  educator,  and  there  are  a  million 
pupils  under  instruction.  Is  it  nothing  to 
stimulate  the  mind  of  a  boy?  Is  it  noth- 
ing to  give  a  man  the  power  of  thought, 
to  open  for  him  a  new  world  of  mental 
activity  and  send  his  soul  on  reaches 
toward  the  infinite  ?  Let  him  answer  who 
in  ignorance  and  stupidity  says  that  mis- 
sions do  not  pay. 


IV. 

SCIENTISTS  AND  PIONEERS. 


"Where  wast  thou   when  I  laid  the  foundations 

of  the  earth?  .  .  . 
Who  laid  the  corner  stone  thereof; 
When  the  morning  stars  sang  together, 
And  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy." 

^^  tO ME  of  the  most  important 
^^|  modern  discoveries  in  the  field 
rcjgwgd  of  science  have  been  made  by 
sSI?  missionaries.  There  is  a  good 
deal  of  talk  about  philology,  or  the  com- 
parative study  of  languages,  in  these  days. 
It  has  been  called  "the  search-light  of  the 
sciences."  It  is  well  to  remember  that 
this  science  was  born  in  the  hut  of  a  mis- 
sionary. 

William  Carey,  the  pioneer  of  modern 
missions,  was  not  only  a  student  of  the 
Bible  and  of  nature ;  he  was  also  a  stu- 
dent of  languages.  He  prepared  numer- 
ous philological  works,  dictionaries  and 
grammars,  and  became  a  world-wide  au- 
23 


24  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

thority  in  Oriental  languages.  Not  only 
by  Mr.  Carey  have  such  services  been 
rendered,  but  the  work  of  scores  of  mis- 
sionaries in  India1,  Africa  and  other  coun- 
tries has  been  turned  toward  the  advance- 
ment of  scientific  research.  Zoology,  bot- 
any have  been  enriched  by  the  work 
of  missionaries,  while  commerce  and  civ- 
ilization have  been  so  notoriously  guided 
in  their  extension  by  the  information  re- 
ceived from  the  emissaries  of  the  Cross 
that  the  pages  of  history  are  blank  to  the 
man  who  scoffs  at  their  work.  Moffat 
Beside  ah  and   Livingstone  in  Africa, 

Waters.  Morrison  in  China,  Judson 

in  Burmah,  Titus  Coan  in  the  Hawaiian 
islands,  have  all  made  valuable  contribu- 
tions to  science.  It  was  Titus  Coan  who 
first  gave  us  a  knowledge  of  the  animals 
of  Patagonia.  It  was  O.  H.  Gulick  who 
first  studied  the  volcanoes  of  the  Sand- 
wich Islands.  It  was  Samuel  Parker  who 
first  observed  for  us  the  hairy  seal,  the 
salmon,  the  rock  cod,  and  other  land  and 
water  animals  of  our  own  country  west 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  was  a  mis- 
sionary who  first  exhumed  the  buried 
mysteries  of  Babylon  and  flung  a  new  in- 


SCIENTISTS  AND  PIONEERS        25 

tercst  over  the  book  of  Daniel.     It  was 
a  missionary  who  rolled  back  the  tide  of 
twenty-two  hundred  years  and  reproduced 
the  times  and  the  trials  of  the  Greek  war- 
riors.    It  was  a  missionary  who  first  dis- 
covered   the    quarries   from   which   came 
the  blocks  for   Nimrod's  palace.     It  was 
a  missionary  who  found  out  how  Baalbec 
was   built   and   how   the    Pyramids   arose 
from  the  desert  sands.     It  was  a  mission- 
ary who  rebuilt   on  paper  the  reservoirs 
oi  Carthage,  retunneled  the  subterranean 
magazines  of  Tripoli  and  thus  reflected  a 
new  light  upon  the  aqueducts  of  Rome.    It 
was  a  missionary  who   gave  us  the   first 
reliable  map  of  China.     It  was  a  mission- 
ary who  wrote  the  best  book  in  any  lan- 
guage   on    Palestine    and   thus    flung   the 
spell  of  a  new  enchantment  over  the  study 
of  Bible  lands.      Those  were  missionaries 
who   introduced   the    reading   public   into 
the   frozen   regions    of    Greenland;   who 
opened  to  the  world  the   doors  of  For- 
mosa,   Corea,    New   Zealand,   Raratonga, 
Tierra    del    Fuego ;   who    discovered   the 
Hittite  inscriptions,  the   Stele  of  Mesha, 
and  the  Nestorian  monument.  Their  work 
is  acknowledged  by  all  the  leading  scien- 


26  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

tific  societies  in  the  world,  among  them 
the  American  Oriental  Society,  the  Royal 
Asiatic  Society,  the  International  Ex- 
ploration Society  and  the  Oriental  Topo- 
graphical Corps.  Missionaries  have  care- 
fully collected  and  faithfully  transmitted 
to  these  societies  knowledge  which  it 
would  have  cost  millions  of  dollars  to  se- 
cure in  any  other  way.  They  have  not 
gone  forth  as  professional  scientists,  but 
being  keenly  alive  to  the  beauties  and 
wonders  of  nature  they  have  discovered 
facts  and  witnessed  phenomena  never  be- 
fore revealed  to  enlightened  hearts  and 
minds. 

The  contribution  which  David  Living- 
stone, alone,  made  to  geography  is  mar- 
velous. He  traveled  twenty-nine  thou- 
sand miles  in  Africa  and  added  to  the 
known  world  about  one  million  square 
miles.  He  discovered  the  five  lakes  of 
central  Africa  and  made  known  the  won- 
derful Victoria  Falls.  He  was  the  first 
He  Made  European  to   travel  the   en- 

New  Maps.  tjre  length  of  Lake  Tangan- 
yika and  to  give  the  world  its  true  ori- 
entation. Lie  remade  the  map  of  Africa 
and  swung  the  Mountains  of  the  Moon 


SCIENTISTS  AND  PIONEERS        27 

across  the  country  the  other  way.  His 
discoveries  were  never  mere  happy 
guesses  or  vague  descriptions  from  the 
accounts  of  the  natives.  Each  spot  was 
determined  with  the  utmost  precision, 
though  at  the  time  his  head  might  be 
giddy  from  pain  and  his  body  burned  with 
fever. 

Dr.  W.  M.  Thomson,  in  his  "The  Land 
and  the  Book,"  shows  himself  to  be  with- 
out a  peer  in  the  variety  of  his  contri- 
butions to  the  geography  of  Syria  and 
Palestine.  The  Bibliotheca  Sacra  says  of 
his  work:  "If  the  Syrian  Mission  had 
produced  no  other  fruit,  the  churches 
which  have  supported  it  would  have  re- 
The  "  Fifth  ceived    ample    return    for 

Gospel"  Read.        ajj   they   jiave    expended. 

It  is  an  interesting  description  of  the 
mountains  and  valleys,  cities  and  rivers  of 
Bible  lands.  It  makes  real  the  stories  of 
the  Jordan,  of  Canaan,  of  Sinai,  of  Egypt 
and  of  Sodom,  by  adding  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  topography  and  geography  of 
the  Holy  Land." 

What  is  more  picturesque  than  Marcus 
Whitman  as  he  stands,  dressed  in  his 
buffalo  robe,  fresh  from  the  Rocky  Moun- 


28  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

tains,  in  the  presence  of  Daniel  Webster, 
pleading  for  that  marvelously  productive 
country  on  the  Pacific  slope — Washing- 
ton and  Oregon  ?  Mr.  Whitman  and  Rev. 
Henry  Spalding,  with  their  wives,  were 
the  first  white  people  that  ever  crossed 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  There  these  mis- 
sionaries discovered  a  well-planned 
scheme  to  secure  this  valuable  region  for 
Great  Britain,  not  only  by  emigration, 
but  also  by  creating  the  impression  that 
wagons  could  not  possibly  cross  the 
mountains  from  the  east  to  the  Columbia 
river.  It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1842  that 
these  missionaries  were  sitting  at  a  table 
He  saved  the  at  Fort  Walla  Walla  when  a 
West.  messenger    announced    that 

some  British  emigrants  had  arrived. 
Toasts  were  drunk,  and  one  of  the  guests 
said,  "Now  let  the  Americans  whistle. 
The  country  is  ours."  Dr.  Whitman  ex- 
cused himself  from  the  company,  and, 
after  some  hurried  preparation,  donned 
his  buffalo  robe  and  started  to  cross  the 
continent  in  midwinter,  risking  cold,  star- 
vation and  hostile  Indians  to  save  Oregon 
for  this  country.  He  reached  Washing- 
ton   in    the    spring,    frostbitten    and    ex- 


SCIENTISTS  AND  PIONEERS        29 

hausted.  He  called  upon  Daniel  Web- 
ster1, Secretary  of  State,  and  told  his 
story.  The  secretary  treated  him  with 
perfect  indifference  and  informed  him  that 
he  was  about  to  exchange  that  worthless 
territory  for  some  valuable  cod-fishery 
concessions  in  Newfoundland.  The  in- 
defatigable missionary  then  turned  to 
President  Tyler  and  told  the  same  story. 
The  President  said,  "Mr.  Whitman,  since 
you  are  a  missionary  I  will  believe  you, 
and  if  you  will  take  your  emigrants  over 
the  mountains,  the  trade  shall  not  be  con- 
summated." A  few  months  later  Mr. 
Whitman  started  with  one  thousand  emi- 
grants, whom  he  led  safely,  after  months 
of  travel  and  toil,  pain  and  hardship,  over 
Whitman  pass  into  the  Willamette  Val- 
ley, and  that  magnificent  stretch  of  terri- 
tory comprising  Washington  and  Oregon 
was  saved  to  our  republic  by  the  patriotic 
energy  and  enterprise  of  a  missionary. 


V. 
DOLLARS  AND  CENTS. 


"What    is    the   Almighty,    that    we    should    serve 

him? 
And    what    profit    should    we    have,    if    we    pray 

unto  him?" 


EVERY  business  man  should  be  in- 
terested in  missions  because  of 
their  relation  to  commerce.  One 
cannot  do  business  without  capi- 
tal, capital  cannot  be  obtained  without  se- 
curity, and  security  cannot  be  given  in  an 
uncivilized,  unsettled  state  of  society.  The 
commercial  value  of  missions  is  abun- 
dantly illustrated  by  their  effect  upon  the 
Sandwich  Islands.  The  history  of  these 
islands  shows  that  fifty  years  ago  they 
had  no  commercial  standing  whatever. 
Protestant  work  was  begun  in  1819,  and 
Your  Money  a  million  dollars  was  used 

Back.  jn    evangelizing    the    peo- 

ple.   To-day  they  are  a  part  of  the  United 
States  and  have  an  annual  trade  with  a 
30 


DOLLARS  AND  CENTS  31 

net  profit  of  twice  the  cost  of  their  evan- 
gelization. Before  Christianity  trans- 
formed the  Fijians,  the  commerce  of  their 
islands  was  nothing.  To-day  their  trade 
amounts  annually  to  over  a  million  dol- 
lars. Samoa  was  positively  shunned 
thirty  years  ago  by  the  nations  of  the 
world.  To-day  the  people  are  nominally 
Christian  and  the  commerce  of  the  islands 
is  sufficient  to  tempt  Germany,  United 
States  and  Great  Britain  to  seek  its  con- 
trol by  intrigue.  For  every  dollar  spent 
in  mission  work  the  commercial  world  re- 
ceives forty  in  return.  Before  Christian- 
ity made  any  progress  among  the  Dakota 
Indians  it  required  $120  a  head  to  support 
them.  After  missionaries  went  among 
them  and  began  to  exemplify  the  practi- 
cal workings  of  the  Christian  religion  it 
cost  the  government  only  $7.20  a  head  to 
support  them. 

Bishop  Fowler  says  he  saw  a  Digger 
Indian  get  his  breakfast  one  morning  in 
the  Yosemite  Valley,  under  the  inspiring 
influences  of  that  sublime  scenery,  out  of 
an  ant's  nest,  with  a  sharp  stick  for  a 
fork.  His  breakfast  cost  him  nothing,  and 
his  dry  goods  bill  for  a  whole  year  would 


32  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

not  exceed  ten  cents.  What  sale  could 
we  get  for  our  surplus  products  among 
such  consumers?  Suppose  we  had  a  sur- 
plus  of  ready-made   clothing.     Could  we 

Christianize-  ship  such  products  to  the 

Civilize.  savages?    Not  at  all.   Be- 

fore we  send  tailors  and  milliners  we 
must  send  the  missionary.  You  cannot 
civilize  a  man  by  compelling  him  to  wear 
civilized  clothing.  You  cannot  civilize  by 
beginning  on  the  outside.  You  must  be- 
gin by  planting  the  civilizing  force  on  the 
inside.  Whenever  the  grace  of  God 
touches  the  heart  the  whole  man  wakes 
up.  Every  instinct  of  progress  is  stirred 
and  a  new  being  is  born.  The  first  want 
created  in  the  savage  heart  when  he  be- 
comes a  Christian  is  for  clothing  with 
which  to  cover  his  nakedness.  When  he 
gets  a  shirt  and  a  pair  of  duck  pants  on 
he  can  no  longer  squat  on  the  ground,  but 
seated  on  a  three-legged  stool  he  feels 
raised  a  thousand  miles  above  his  former 
self.  Presently  his  wife  wants  a  bonnet, 
a  pair  of  shoes,  a  dress,  some  gloves  and 
ribbons.  Then  the  children  want  pictures 
and  books.     They  will  work   and  trade ; 


DOLLARS  AND  CENTS  33 

you   can    buy   and   sell;   and   that   means 
commerce. 

The  people  of  Oriental  lands  are  en- 
tirely satisfied  with  the  customs  of  their 
ancestors.  When  left  to  themselves  they 
aspire  to  nothing  better.  No  contact  with 
western  civilization  has  ever  roused  them 
from  their  apathy.  It  is  only  when  the 
mind  and  heart  are  warmed  into  life  by 
the  gospel  truth  that  they  awake  and  be- 
gin to  want  something  new.  It  has  been 
said  that  if  trade  relations  could  be  es- 
tablished with  barbarous  and  semi-bar- 
barous nations  so  as  to  introduce  them  to 
civilized  life  it  would  civilize  and  enrich 
them.  This  was  tried  about  twenty-five 
years  ago  among  the  Zulus  of  Africa. 
Plows  and  wagons  and  oxen  were  shipped 
to  them  with  a  view  of  civilizing  them. 
The  result  was  that  the  Christian  Zulus 
adopted  the  new  method  of  cultivating 
the  soil  and  made  great  progress  in  the 
art  of  agriculture.  But  the  heathen  Zulus 
harnessed  their  women  to  the  plows  and 
while  their  wives  were  plowing  the  soil 
they  sat  down  and  ate  up  the  oxen.  Peo- 
ple appreciate  the  conveniences  of  mod- 
ern civilization  only  when  the  heart  and 


34  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

life  have  been  touched  by  Christianity. 
The  great  civilizing  influence  goes  on  be- 
fore, embodied  in  the  missionary ;  after 
him  comes  commerce  in  the  form  of  plows 
and  harrows,  picks  and  shovels,  wagons 
and  harness,  clocks  and  carpets,  knives 
and  forks,  dishes,  axes,  books,  maps,  pic- 
tures, windows,  chairs,  telephones,  bicy- 
cles, railroads,  and  ten  thousand  other 
things  which  go  to  make  up  civilized  life. 
The  commercial  value  of  any  nation  is 
determined  bv  the  degree  of  Christian 
civilization  it  enjoys.  The  annual  busi- 
ness of  England  is  $100  for  every  person 
in  the  kingdom ;  of  the  United  States, 
$75;  of  France,  $50;  of  Japan,  $15;  of 
China,  $4;  of  Africa,  $2.50.  When  we 
shall  have  Christianized  China  and  Africa, 
with  all  the  islands  of  the  sea,  what  new 
markets  will  have  been  opened  and  what 
millions  will  have  been  added  to  the  com- 
merce of  the  world ! 


VI. 

THE  FUTURE  THAT  SHALL  BE. 


"This  is  the  end  of  the  matter;  all  hath  been 
heard:  fear  God,  and  keep  his  commandments; 
for  this  is  the  whole  duty  of  man." 


THESE  triumphs  which  have  been 
achieved  through  missionary  ac- 
tivities lead  one  very  naturally 
to  remark  upon  the  wide  sweep 
which  the  Church  takes  in  its  evangelis- 
tic efforts.  There  is  nothing  narrow  in 
the  conception  which  it  has  of  the  work 
to  be  done.  It  touches  every  department 
of  life.  By  its  influence  the  springs  of 
human  activity  are  affected  in  every  di- 
rection. The  conception  the  world  has 
had  of  the  Church  and  its  relation  to  hu- 
manity has  always  been  narrow.  A 
casual  glance  at  the  New  Testament 
shows  that  in  the  mind  of  Christ  the  king- 
aii  Kingdoms  dom  of  which  he  speaks 

Christ's.  is  the  lifCj  and  the  church 

is   the   manifestation    of   that   life   to   the 

world.    "In  him  was  life ;  and  the  life  was 

35 


36  HO  W  MISSIONS  PA  Y 

the  light  of  men."  He  was  "the  true 
Light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world."  Is  there  any- 
thing narrow  about  that?  Anything 
contracted  or  small?  It  is  as  wide  as 
human  heart-beats  and  touches  every- 
thing that  touches  the  interest  of  man- 
kind. "The  kingdoms  of  this  world"  shall 
"become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and 
of  his  Christ."  Not  the  temporal  and 
earthly  kingdoms  only ;  not  those  alone 
of  England  and  of  Irfdia,  but  the  king- 
doms of  science  and  commerce,  of  edu- 
cation and  wealth,  of  agriculture  and  in- 
dustry, of  politics  and  music.  Kingdoms 
in  which  you  and  I  may  become  kings 
and  queens  and  potentates.  Had  the 
Church  grasped  that  idea  a  thousand  years 
ago,  says  Dr.  Strong,  her  history  would 
have  been  differently  written,  her  victo- 
ries more  complete,  her  triumphs  more 
marked.  And  yet  1  have  not  one  pulse  of 
sympathy  for  those  who  cry  out  against 
the  successes  achieved  or  depreciate  the 
measures  employed.  If  the  Church  has 
not  saved  the  world,  she  has  at  least  kept 
it  from  rotting.  If  she  has  not  been  its  full 
salvation,    she    has    been    the    salt    whose 


FUTURE  THAT  SHALL  BE  37 

saving  power  has  been  vast  and  precious. 
And  when  we  remember  how  small  a  part 
of  her  possible  force  she  has  been  able  to 
use  and  in  how  narrow  a  sphere  her  in- 
a  Great  fluence  has  been  exerted,  how 
Harvest.        she    jias    keen     hindered     and 

crippled  by  our  mistaken  notions,  there 
is  kindled  within  us  a  hope  that  when  she 
rises  to  the  true  conception  of  her  mis- 
sion, availing  herself  of  the  forces  at  her 
command,  she  will  mightily  hasten  the 
day  of  Christ's  enthronement  over  all  the 
world. 

Missions  do  pay.  They  are  grandly 
triumphant.  They  are  heaven-ordained, 
and  through  them  the  world  will  ulti- 
mately be  brought  to  the  feet  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  A  great  opportunity  is  be- 
fore us.  The  instrumentality  is  within 
our  hands.  The  command  has  already 
been  given.    Who  is  there  to  answer  nay? 


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